The Dark Pictures Anthology: Man of Medan Review (PC)

very good
key review info
  • Game: The Dark Pictures Anthology: Man of Medan
  • Platform: PC
  • Show system requirements
  • Gamepad support: Yes  
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The Dark Pictures Anthology: Man of Medan

The Dark Pictures Anthology: Man of Medan is an unexpected gem that will often make you jump out of your seat. Sadly, the game itself tries to change the player's impression with the wonky controls and character movement.

Truly original games are seldom released, but that’s normal. Getting something new and exciting was much more likely a couple of decades ago because there were still many uncharted territories. Now, pretty much all of the significant genres have been explored and expanded, so it’s unlikely that new and shiny things will catch our eye.

For the most part, we only want improvements on last year's titles or for studios to manage to release a hyped-up game without screwing their legacy. From the looks of it, the more experience a studio has, the more likely for them to mess up a new game. The culprit is usually the studio’s effort to experiment with true and tried recipes.

The same can be said about The Dark Pictures Anthology: Man of Medan, which feels like an experiment or Frankenstein’s monster. We can recognize bits and pieces from other games, put together in a way that shouldn’t technically work. But despite its failings, Man of Medan somehow has a soul and manages to capture the imagination. And as players, we can’t really ask more from a game.

What is the Man of Medan?

I’m confident that you’re probably wondering what’s with the name of the game? And who or what is the Man of Medan? It turns out that those are separate questions, each with an equally interesting answer.

First of all, it’s called The Dark Pictures Anthology because the developers from Supermassive Games are planning to release a collection of games, each exploring some famous urban legend, from the perspective of people taking part in unique events.

The Dark Pictures Anthology: Man of Medan
The Dark Pictures Anthology: Man of Medan
The Dark Pictures Anthology: Man of Medan
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And then there is the Man of Medan, which as a loose translation for Ourang Medan, a ship that went missing shortly after the Second World War, somewhere in the Indian Ocean. Granted, it’s not a famous legend, but the supposed disappearance of the ship happened in recent time. The transformation into a ghost ship seemed a lot less likely.

The original story is impressive. It's about a ship without a name that went missing near the Marshal Islands. A single survivor was found sometime later, on a nearby atoll. He died shortly after his rescue, but he said that his ship was carrying a large quantity of sulfuric acid, which was badly secured. That meant the end for the ship, but a single survivor, also without a name, and an unknown ship makes for a great story to tell later on. And so the legend was born.

But the game is not about the disappearance of Ourang Medan or the Man from Medan, although the game does hint about a similar event right at the start, establishing some of the gameplay elements.

On top of the story itself, players get to know a person known as the Overseer, which says that you’re now responsible for the choices of the upcoming adventure, placing you somehow in charge of their destiny. The interaction with the Overseer, his reasons, or his very existence raises many more question than the Man of Medan itself.

Very few points of reference

The Dark Pictures Anthology: Man of Medan combines elements from point-and-click adventure games with gameplay feature from titles like the old Resident Evil. For example, all the cameras are fixed, and players experience the action from the point of view determined by the game creators.

The unnerving atmosphere and the constant dread of what’s to come have nothing to do with adventure titles, and there are even some RPG hints if we take into consideration the choices made by the players. Man of Medan is a strange beast.

Simply put, the player controls various characters in the story, one at a time, as the story requires. Answering questions, not saying anything, and even taking to long to respond, has an impact. Most of the time, these small choices affect the relationships between characters, which are always evolving.

Of course, the entire plot seems like the obvious choice for a horror experience, which is complete with a lot of jump-scares and great design for the levels and environment. I need to mention the Unreal game engine, which is beautifully used, especially for the eyes, which is are incredibly expressive.

The Dark Pictures Anthology: Man of Medan
The Dark Pictures Anthology: Man of Medan
The Dark Pictures Anthology: Man of Medan
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All of the critical actions performed by the characters are through quick-tome events, and it might seem simple enough. But some of these events happen so fast that you need some lightning-fast reflexes. Quitting the game to try again is not possible, a save is created right at the event.

The Dark Pictures Anthology: Man of Medan is also built to work as a multiplayer experience, either online or on the same computer or console. It sounds like a clunky mechanism, but it kind of works. Think of it like it’s a social game, but the game purpose is to scare the bejesus out of the players.

The only big problem of the game is the control system. It’s somewhat decent on consoles, but the PC’s equivalent is atrocious. It was lifted from a gamepad and places on WASD keys. The characters bump into walls, get stuck in corners, can’t turn around. It’s a mess, which is a shame because it eclipses the quality of the gameplay.


The Good

  • Engaging atmosphere
  • Beautiful graphics
  • Great replay value

The Bad

  • Terrible control scheme

Conclusion

I’m happy that The Dark Pictures Anthology: Man of Medan is designed to be a part of a much larger project, and I can only hope that they continue to make them. Despite some of the technical problems, the game has a lot of promise and room for improvement.

Although to be fair, the developers from Supermassive Games made the somewhat similar Until Dawn back in 2015, but this new one is a clear evolution since then. Which only means that the next iteration is going to be even better.

I found it interesting when I have a problem describing a game to someone else. I want to say what type of game it is, but Man of Medan doesn’t fit into a particular genre. At its core, it’s a cinematic experience, but that doesn’t explain much. I could say that it’s a horror adventure game, and I would be a little bit closer to the truth. The alternative is that The Dark Pictures Anthology is part of a new genre, for which we don’t have a proper name yet, even if it’s not exactly the first one in the series.

With that said, I can only recommend The Dark Pictures Anthology, despite the control problems. The way the games makes people feel when playing is worth it, even if you’re always talking with the characters, trying to keep them on a straight path through the levels.

And the best part is that Man of Medan has so many choices that I can go back, and play something completely different.

story 8
gameplay 7
concept 9
graphics 9
audio 8
multiplayer 7
final rating 8
Editor's review
very good
 

Photo Gallery (30 Images)

The Dark Pictures Anthology: Man of Medan
The Dark Pictures Anthology: Man of MedanThe Dark Pictures Anthology: Man of MedanThe Dark Pictures Anthology: Man of MedanThe Dark Pictures Anthology: Man of Medan
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